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Published: 29.04.2018
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Self-grown tomatoes are always tastier and healthier than store-bought tomatoes, but not all townspeople have their own summer cottage. You should not worry, as you can plant plants on the windowsill or on the balcony of your own apartment. Our story is about the balcony miracle tomato, which will delight you with an excellent harvest and you will have fresh vegetables at any time of the year.
- 1 Miracles in a pot: a description of the variety with a photo 1.1 Features and advantages of a tomato:
Description of the variety
This dwarf culture was bred by German breeders. It grows no more than 50cm in height, the trunk has a strong and even standard shape, does not need a garter and pinning. The yield of this determinant variety is up to 2 kg of small, ideal spherical tomatoes from one bush. The average weight of fruits is 30-50 g. In conditions of special care and growth in separate pots, it is possible to get tomatoes of a larger size.
Sweet, bright red in color, they are suitable not only for fresh consumption, but also for conservation, freezing and salting. In terms of ripening, they are early ripening, you can get a crop on average 90 days after planting. A significant advantage of the variety is its low demand for light - the bushes bear fruit well even in conditions of insufficient light in winter.
Reviews of those who grew
Semi-decorative variety of tomatoes The balcony miracle is loved by beginners and experienced gardeners. Due to the peculiarities of the variety, even those who do not have a summer cottage can grow it. Most of the opinions about the variety agree on positive aspects.
Nikolay, Yoshkar-Ola: “Compact tomato Balcony miracle impressed and surprised! An excellent, undersized variety that ties well and bears fruit perfectly. I can grow it both in the garden and on my balcony. Taste is excellent, we freeze and preserve tomatoes - for decoration in a jar. These mini tomatoes are really a miracle! The plant looks very nice at home, a small pot and a minimum of land are suitable for it. Recomend for everybody".
Vladimir, Tver: “Once I heard that there is a variety of tomatoes grown right on the windowsill, I didn’t believe it, I decided to try it. Variety Balconnoe miracle is good, I liked it. Beautiful bushes can revive the interior of a balcony or room. I can only say good things about tomatoes. They never got sick and did not freeze, and when they matured, they made me happy with a sweet taste. Minuses did not notice. The harvest is good. What I noticed: tomatoes grow poorly in small pots, there is little harvest. The variety is not suitable for sale, since its yield is good only for ornamental varieties. In general, relatively few tomatoes grow. "
Anna, Oryol: “I saw interesting indoor plants from my neighbor. She said that these were tomatoes, I didn’t believe her, I decided to try it. Planted this Balcony miracle.Fruits set quickly, so great! I want to warn other fans of balcony vegetation: do not break off the leaves, flowers of future fruits are often tied under them. The bushes are very attractive and bright, they look beautiful on the balcony, the plants are easy to care for, and their main advantage is the pleasant taste of tomatoes! "
Soil selection and preparation
You can make the soil suitable for planting yourself, or you can purchase it at a specialized outlet. It should be fortified and slightly acidic. From the purchased soil compositions, the substrate "Living Earth" or the ready-made soil mixture "Tomatoes" is suitable. For self-preparation, sod land, peat soil and humus are mixed in equal proportions. Two days before laying the seed, the soil mixture is watered with warm water.
Sowing seeds
It is carried out, as for other varieties of tomato, in a seedling way. Processing with a warm manganese solution of low concentration and soaking the seeds are optional, but they will not be superfluous. Planting is carried out in moist, warm ground in plastic cups (drainage holes are required), peat pots, etc. Seeding frequency is two seeds per cup for healthy competition. After that, the container is covered with cling film to create a greenhouse effect - this will accelerate germination. The optimum temperature is 23 ° -25 ° С. The film is removed in 3-5 days or immediately after germination.
At first, containers should be placed in the lightest and warmest place. And after a week - put away in a cool place. Ideally, if you can find a corner with a temperature of about 15 ° C for this. After another week, the seedlings return to their place. Transplantation to a permanent "place of residence" is carried out with the growth of shoots 10-15 cm.
Young seedlings are afraid of drafts! If you need to ventilate the room, it is better to take it out for a while to a safe, protected place.
Features of planting in open ground
The "Balcony Miracle" is planted on garden or greenhouse beds using seedlings or seeds. This should be done when the frost season has passed, and at night the mercury column will not fall below 10 degrees Celsius. Although in greenhouse conditions, both seedlings and seeds are planted earlier.
Important! "Street" seeds are prepared for planting in the same way as for the home. Seedlings need hardening.
To do this, the pots are taken out into the street, increasing the time spent there from 15 minutes to two hours. This must be done for at least ten days. Seedlings should be in a windless and shaded place. From the windward side, it is worth pulling the covering material.
You can also harden seedlings on an open balcony.
Cloudy weather without wind is more suitable for planting seedlings. The distance between the bushes is 30 cm.The depth of the pits is 2 cm.
The site must be well lit, protected from drafts. Tomatoes are best combined with carrots, radishes, beets, melons, early strawberries, cabbage. It is undesirable to plant them next to eggplants and peppers. These crops have common pests, and if one bush is affected, the problem will spread to all plantings.
Features of seed planting
- Sprinkle the soil with a manganese solution or boiling water to disinfect it, then loosen it up with a cultivator or shovel.
Before planting, the beds are disinfected with potassium permanganate.
The seeds of the "Balcony Miracle" are best planted in a checkerboard pattern.
Five seeds are placed in the hole at once.
Covering material is removed only after the germination of the shoots.
When shoots appear, the material is removed. The bushes are thinned out, leaving a pair of the strongest. The rest can be transplanted by increasing the tomato patch.
Prices for potassium permanganate
potassium permanganate
Watering
Tomatoes require regular soil moisture throughout the growing season. However, plants should be watered only after the earthen clod is fully high. Otherwise they will get sick. Watering is done exclusively at the root, trying not to get on the leaves and trunk. You do not need to spray the entire plant. In winter, watering should be reduced to 1-2 times a week. Water for irrigation must always be defended during the day.
Top dressing
At first, it is done once a week, then less often. For this, solutions of urea, potassium sulfate are suitable, superphosphate gives a very good effect.
If the plant grows abruptly without the formation of a sufficient amount of color, this indicates not overfeeding!
If the tomatoes are not grown indoors, you can use chicken manure or mullein. Top dressing with mullein and chicken droppings should be applied to the soil without touching the stem of the plant. Of the ready-made fertilizers for the "Balconnoe Miracle" variety, "Tsitovit" and "Epin" are recommended. Homemade top dressing is prepared according to the following scheme: for 1 liter of water, 2 g of potassium and urea sulfate and 5 g of superphosphate are taken. Dry baker's yeast is also an excellent stimulant for indoor tomatoes. The solution is prepared at the rate of 10 g of granulated dry yeast per 5 liters of water.
Caring for tomatoes at home
Agrotechnics includes standard techniques:
- watering;
- top dressing;
- loosening the soil;
- airing;
- plant formation, garter.
Watering is carried out as the soil dries up, preventing waterlogging and drought. The water should stand for 2-3 days, have a temperature of about + 20ºC. On hot days, water is often watered, in winter, as well as in cloudy weather, they are guided by the state of plants and soil. Mulching gives a good effect, due to which soil moisture is retained. Sawdust and peat are used.
Loosening the soil should be very careful, since the tomato roots are located close enough to the soil surface.
Tomatoes in pots on the windowsill require a lot of space, they should be free, without the leaves touching each other. The distance from the window should be sufficient, otherwise the plants on hot days can get burned through the glass.
Tomatoes do not like too humid and very dry air. Moisture readings should be in the range of 50-70%. To create a comfortable regime, it is recommended to regularly ventilate the balcony, loggia, room, but do not let the tomatoes get into drafts.
The early ripe variety does not need constant pinching, but the formation of a plant will only benefit the tomato. When grown on a balcony, it is recommended to lead a tomato in two stems.
To do this, one stepson is left under the very first flower brush, who will be the second stem. If the volume of the pot where the plant is planted is sufficient, then it is quite possible to lead a balcony miracle in three stems. It is advisable to break out the stepsons, not to cut them off.
Productivity and fruiting directly depend on top dressing. They use ready-made fertilizers for tomatoes ("Solution", "Kemira universal"), where the complex contains all the nutrients necessary for the plant. At the beginning of the growing season, nitrogen is required for good growth, during flowering and fruit setting, tomatoes must be provided with potassium, throughout the entire growing of plants - with phosphorus.
ON A NOTE! Too lush greenery and intensive growth of shoots on the bush means that the tomato has been overfed with nitrogen. It is necessary to stop watering (for about 7-10 days), increase the air temperature to + 27ºC.
The first time tomatoes are fed no earlier than two weeks after transplantation.In the future, fertilization should be regular, but not excessive, strictly according to the norms. An approximate schedule is every 10-12 days.
Temperature regime
The optimal values correspond to the average summer indicators - 22 ° -26 ° С. The minimum fruiting threshold is 16 ° C, at this temperature in the room for several days the tomatoes stop growing and bear fruit and gradually die.
To improve pollination, you can periodically gently shake the bush.
To enhance fruiting and the formation of new ovaries, semi-ripe tomatoes can be plucked and spread for ripening in a warm, lighted place. However, ripe fruits will be inferior in taste to those that have reached ripeness on the bush.
Diseases and pests
Growing tomatoes at home provides them with almost complete sterility and, as a rule, the absence of the usual diseases of this culture. However, one has to deal with diseases that arise due to errors in care - insufficient or excessive moisture, illiterate feeding, lack of light or heat. In addition, the infection can get along with the contaminated soil.
If dark spots begin to appear on the leaves, stem or on the forming fruits, you should sound the alarm - the tomatoes are infected with late blight. If this fact is left unattended, the bush can not only be completely destroyed in a short time, but also infect other plants within a room or even an apartment. Treating the disease is difficult, so the best thing to do is to destroy the diseased specimens along with the ground.
The cause of the development of the fungus can also be increased dampness, cold and lack of sufficient lighting. Despite the unpretentiousness of the variety in relation to light, at low temperatures this can adversely affect development. Therefore, in winter, it is recommended to make up for this shortage with a fluorescent lamp.
It is safe to say that today this is one of the best dwarf tomato varieties that can be grown indoors or on the balcony. Of course, you can plant them in the greenhouse, slightly adjusting the care, in particular with regard to watering. This variety is not usually grown outdoors, there are many others for this. Of course, the home garden will not cope with the task of feeding a family with excellent tomatoes all year round, but it will certainly be able to add not only vitamins to the table, but also a lot of aesthetic pleasure.
Possible problems when growing tomatoes at home
Reviews indicate that the balcony miracle tomatoes when grown at home show very good results. But you need to know some of the "tricks" of their agricultural technology:
- Plants should curl up in the daytime, and in the evening the leaves should straighten. This is an indicator of correct development, and if this does not happen, you need to find out the reason: poor lighting, lack of ventilation, overfeeding with fertilizers, incorrect temperatures. After clarification, it is necessary to quickly adjust the tomato growing mode.
- During flowering, tomato bushes need to be shaken slightly for better pollination.
- To increase the number of tomato ovaries, it is recommended to treat plants with special preparations such as "Ovary", "Bud".
- On very hot days, the plant needs a little shading.
- When ventilating the premises, tomatoes should not fall under drafts.
- To obtain a good harvest for such varieties of tomatoes, it is recommended to carry out the following technique: the plant, holding the stem, is slightly raised from the soil in order to tear off the small roots. Then the bush is spud and watered.
We hope that the information on growing fruitful homemade tomato Balcony Miracle turned out to be useful to you.
Natalia Severova
